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Author Notes:At The Fatted Calf we make this classic American pâté by the dozen. It is a thing of beauty, shaped into a large oval loaf and glazed with tangy cocktail sauce. Serve thick slices over creamy mashed potatoes. Leftovers make excellent sandwiches. —Toponia Miller

Preheat the oven to 325° F (165° C). To make the forcemeat, spread the peppercorns and allspice on a baking sheet and toast for 3 to 5 minutes, until fragrant. Let cool completely. Toast the fennel seeds the same way, then let cool completely. Reserve half of the toasted fennel seeds and half of the chile flakes. In a spice grinder, combine the remaining chile flakes and fennel seeds, the toasted peppercorns and allspice, and the clove, and grind finely.

Place the beef, pork, and fat in a large nonreactive bowl. To make the spice kit, in a small bowl, combine the freshly ground spices, the salt, and the garlic and stir well. Mix the spice kit evenly with the meat, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Reserve the bacon in the refrigerator.

Combine the onions and butter in a sauté pan set over low heat. Season with the salt and sweat the onions slowly for about 20 minutes, until they are tender and translucent. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature. Add the bread crumbs, egg, ketchup, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, oregano, sage, and thyme to the onion and mix well.

To make the cocktail sauce glaze, in a small bowl, combine the ketchup, salt, pepper, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco and mix well. (The sauce can be made a day ahead and refrigerated or just prior to grinding.)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set up your meat grinder. Fit the grinder with the largest plate and grind the bacon once. Stop the grinder, switch to the medium plate, and grind the beef and pork once. Mix the ground bacon into the ground beef and pork. Pour the panade over the meat and mix by hand for 2 to
3 minutes, until the farce comes together in a cohesive mass. Cook a small sample of the mixture in a sauté pan and adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Transfer the farce to the prepared baking sheet. Using your hands, mold into a long, even loaf about 2 1/2 inches tall and 7 1/2 inches wide. Smooth over any cracks so that the surface appears relatively uniform. If the loaf seems at all crumbly, return it to the bowl to knead further and then reshape. Small cracks will become bigger during cooking, making the loaf unattractive and hard to slice, so it is important to make sure that it is firmly held together at this point.

Using the edge of a spatula or the back of a chef’s knife, score the top of the loaf in a diamond pattern: Facing the loaf lengthwise, turn your spatula or knife at a 45 degree angle and make a cut 1/8 inch deep from the left side all the way to the right side. Repeat at 1-inch intervals, then reverse and score in the opposite direction.

Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees to ensure even cooking. Check the temperature after another 10 minutes. When a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 100° F, remove the loaf from the oven and spread the cocktail sauce evenly over the top and sides with a spoon. Return the loaf to the oven and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until the loaf reaches an internal temperature of 140° F.

Let the loaf rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Wrapped tightly and refrigerated, the loaf will keep for 3 to 4 days.

Great meatloaf! I cut corners and used pre-ground beef and pork, but it was still extremely juicy and flavorful. The spice mix adds a really unique flavor to the loaf and the horseradish a nice spicy bite. However, my loaf cooked for well over an hour to reach 140, much more than the recipe suggested. Well worth the wait, though.

I saw the recipe at Yahoo and one instruction referred to creaming sugar and shortening - these did not appear in ingredients. In the recipe at your site, it refers to panade, but I saw no ingredients- other than breadcrumbs - to make panade. Sounds like a marvelous recipe. HELP!

You can definitely use already ground meat. If you will not be grinding the bacon, be sure to chop it finely. Make sure the fat content of the ground meat is roughly the same and work in the spices, mixing by hand, to evenly distribute. Enjoy.